Friday, March 25, 2011

The great irony of the Jack Adams award is that being the coach of the league's best team often precludes one from talk of being the league's best coach. Truth is, when there's no other possible explanation for a team's success, then the coach gets the credit. If, however, it's possible to attribute that success elsewhere (such as the team's makeup or star players) you're likely to hear very little about the man behind the bench.

The Jack Adams trophy typically goes to coaches who have led unimpressive teams to impressive records. Impressive, that is to say, considering how little was expected of them. It's an award predicated on exceedingexpectations, not excelling. You measure where expectations were when you started, and contrast this with where the team winds up. The coach behind the greatest unexplained upswing gets the award.

This is one reason chatter regarding Alain Vigneault's coach of the year odds has been relatively nonexistent this year. Everyone expected the Canucks to be good: they've been the safe pick to win the West since the summer, and you don't win the Jack Adams simply by meeting expectations, however lofty. Considering Mike Babcock has never won the award, largely because his team, too, is merely ho-hum excellent, you'd think it was nearly impossible for the coach of a top-tier team to win. The team would have to dominate every major statistical category.

Amazingly, Alain Vigneault has emerged as a late-season frontrunner for the Jack Adams, because that's what the Canucks are doing.

They have the league's best offensive players powering the league's best offense. They're 1st in goals for and 1st on the power play, with 39 man advantage goals, where the league median is 21. This offense boasts the top two scorers in the NHL, the league's best playmaker, and two of the league's top four goal scorers. They have the reigning Art Ross and Hart trophy winner, and he'll likely be passing both awards to his freaking twin brother. At alternating times this season, three different Canuck forwards have been tabbed as the frontrunner for league MVP.

On defense, they don't have the same superstar names, and some say they lack a top pairing guy, unless you want to make an argument for Dan Hamhuis or Kevin Bieksa, third and fourth in the NHL in plus/minus, respectively, or for Christian Ehrhoff, who is sixth in scoring by a defenseman, or even for Alex Edler, who is generally considered to be better than those three guys. On top of that, statistically, the Canucks are the best defensive team in the league, so it's hard to criticize their personnel. They're 1st in goals against. They're one-tenth of a percentage point from first on the penalty kill. They have 18 games won by three goals or more, tops in the league. They're first in faceoffs.

They have arguably the league's best goaltending. Their goaltender is first in wins, third in save percentage, and fourth in goals against average, and his backup has nearly identical stats. The Canucks have the highest winning percentage in the league when outshot. Luongo and Schneider are in line to bring home Vancouver's first ever Jennings Trophy.

And if you think Alain Vigneault is resting on his laurels or coasting on the strength of this roster, consider that the Canucks have dressed 39 different skaters this year, not including goalies. That's more than any other team, followed by the New York Islanders, who are proof that, when you have that many injuries, you're supposed to be terrible.

But the Canucks aren't terrible. Not by a longshot, not at anything. In fact, they're on top of every category. You'd think everything must have gone right this season to achieve that kind of dominance, and you'd be right to think that because, even when it hasn't, somehow, improbably, it has.

Alain Vigneault has weathered every obstacle. He's done it this year without playing even one game with all six of his top defensemen healthy, with his starting goaltender changing his game on the fly, with the right-winger on his top line missing the first month of the season, with the wingers on his second line playing inconsistent hockey all year, with his entire third line disappearing for over a month, and a fourth line featuring numerous AHL callups, Euro-league transfers, and gingerbread men. In truth, the only consistency the Canucks have seen all season has been behind the bench.

And that may be the greatest testament to this incredible season. The Canucks are so good that their coach might even get the credit.

18 comments:

Yup! Was thinking the same yesterday...how does such a diverse team still bring home the bacon? I was a coach through university, & [not that I needed an award] but struggled with 'team 1st' v. '1 team' many times. Thought 'jeez, AV is an awesome coach', by all reports. Of course, the team mgmt has sth to offer as well...but that's another story.

When you look at the season's accomplishments in hinsight, it really is remarkable, truly remarkable. I think I've gotten to the point where I've taken the success for granted. It's good to see how much the team has fought to be that good.

I wish the unsung hero award could go to personnel as well as players, because I think Rick Bowness is often left in the shadows, yet I believe that a lot of Vigneault's success comes from Bowness' contributions. They've been together since '06, and if he wasn't successful he would've been gone a while ago.

It's been such an amazing ride, even I totally forgot about the first month... And this (preposterously long sentence, erm, observation: "He's done it this year without playing even one game with all six of his top defensemen healthy, with his starting goaltender changing his game on the fly, with the right-winger on his top line missing the first month of the season, with the wingers on his second line playing inconsistent hockey all year, with his entire third line disappearing for over a month, and a fourth line featuring numerous AHL callups, Euro-league transfers, and gingerbread men" alone, should at the very least put the 'Canucks are over-rated' naysayers in the penalty box.

Even more amazing considering last years version had career years by an absurdly amount of players (I thinkit was 9)while this year they don't have near that number. This further proves that their system (a.k.a. coaching)and team play is the reason for their best season ever.

@Anonymous1:17Should we count the time in the summer that he was out as well? It's easier and more accurate to say that he missed the first month of the season.

@Anonymous1:24It definitely is impressive, but it should be noted that those injuries put them in the position to load up for the playoffs. Botchford put it well on Twitter:

"I see Canucks playing man-games lost card. Little deceiving. There's Sweatt's 22 & if Salo was healthy, an imp player would have been traded...Also, Edler's injury allowed Canucks cap flexibility to add Salo on active roster, w/o losing player plus the Higgins/Lapierre acquisitions...Canucks injuries have allowed them the potential to "load up" for the playoffs. So, playing that man-games lost card rings disingenuous"

But I disagree. botch did not put it well. How is it disingenuous to play the man games lost card? Sure it allowed us to "load up" for playoffs. But since we are talking about the regular season here and we did hae to play that part of the schedule short very good players a lot of the time it still counts. I mean you do have to make the playoffs first before you can "load up" for them.

I mostly agree with Skeeter (otherwise I wouldn't continue to read this blog) but Section 312 does have a point.... would we be able to count Lee Sweatt's 22 games lost if it weren't necessary to call him up because our defense at the time was in the middle of being decimated? Botch has a very valid point - but this post is about the Coach of the Year - not the GM of The Year - so Salary Cap issues have no bearing on the discussion. Chris Tanev... Seriously - who saw this kid coming? Bowness should get it right there!

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